JWG

Some sea creatures on land

March 15th, 2010

Many of the turtles we saw were underwater but some were on land. I was swimming among them several times. There is a small creature on this turtle. I wonder if a small person could hitch a ride (forbidden of course). In another post I will have some tortoises. We did see Lonesome George - the last in his line, but he was in a dark spot under a tree so I didn't take a picture.

On one of the islands we saw a whale spine. Apparently an accidently beached whale was discovered and they moved the skeleton to a readily visible spot. It certainly makes it clear that they are mammals. The discs are pretty interesting as well.

um - how does that skeleton make clear that they're mammals (as in, giving milk to young)? There is a central vertebral column, a ribcage in the torso, a head, limbs, bilateral symmetry - but that's true of amphibians and birds and reptiles too. frogs have the same one bone-joint-two bones (fused, in the frog case)-joint-many bones structure to limbs that humans and lions and tigers and bears (oh my) have. or pandas, for that matter.